PN commission declares leadership election outcome correct as Delia raises doubts

The Nationalist Party’s electoral commission has refuted allegations made by Adrian Delia’s leadership campaign team on the eligibility of around 100 voters in Saturday’s contest.

In a statement on Monday evening, the PN’s Electoral, Records and Data Commission Chairperson Mario Callus said: “The commission has examined the allegations made and, following its investigation, declares that the outcome of the election for the Leader of the PN is correct.”

Delia lost the election to Alex Borg by a mere 44 votes, a result that was only officially confirmed at around 4am on Sunday following a five-hour delay.

Callus said that both candidates and their representatives had agreed to the lists used in the election. He also confirmed that the allegations raised in the letter sent on Monday had already been addressed in a meeting with the candidates and their representatives on Saturday evening.

Times of Malta has reported that in its letter signed by Paul Borg, the Delia camp said it had identified 33 people who appeared on the final list of eligible voters, despite never having appeared on previous lists.

The letter asks for a full list of those who voted and of those who didn’t. It also questions how nine of these 33 people were allowed to vote, despite a directive from the electoral commission barring them from doing so.

The Delia camp also claimed that Callus had told them that there were 88 people who had appeared on the final voting list for the first time. The letter demanded proof that these 88 people were, in fact, eligible to vote.

Issues were also raised about certain voters between the ages of 16-18 and whether they had satisfied the minimum period of being members for six months.

The protestations by the Delia camp have cast a shadow on the leadership election process, even though Delia congratulated Alex Borg on Sunday.

In his first speech to members on Sunday morning, Borg urged the party to unite behind his leadership, insisting it was the only way the PN could beat the Labour Party in the next general election.